Muscle tear between ribs rehab?

[Fiskevatten]

Long time no see!
So I went a little overboard jumping on MMA, Weights and Climbing around two months ago.
I kept feeling the side close to ribs and under lats was getting more and more stiff, with no to little pain.
After one session in MMA, something hurt like a mf there and I couldn't even drive home.
Breathing was hard, but I came home and slept through it.

Day after I was swollen and in pain, but I thought it would be fine. Then came the sneeze, a SNEEZE,
and "plop" my lats side went all blue and red (internal bleeding).
Called hospital and they stated muscle tear, but do to what I described, rest and painkillers was prescribed.

Took 6 weeks before I was feeling fully healed.
Still went to gym only, but couldn't do any fly or shoulder press movements, everything else went good
with just a little pain.
Still happy!

After 6th week (2 weeks ago) I went back to MMA, and of course I was thrown and landed on an arm
right on the injury.
Got the plop again, but no internal bleeding and pain was less than last time.
However, this time I am way more swollen, from place of injury all over to lats and serratus.
Back to resting and rehab training.

Went to hospital, but 5 hours waiting time and no help made me got tired and I went home, Corona
situation has them swamped.

How do I get those small fibers strong again? No idea how to strenghten muscle fibers between the ribs...

[Hughinn]

Long time no see!
So I went a little overboard jumping on MMA, Weights and Climbing around two months ago.
I kept feeling the side close to ribs and under lats was getting more and more stiff, with no to little pain.
After one session in MMA, something hurt like a mf there and I couldn't even drive home.
Breathing was hard, but I came home and slept through it.

Day after I was swollen and in pain, but I thought it would be fine. Then came the sneeze, a SNEEZE,
and "plop" my lats side went all blue and red (internal bleeding).
Called hospital and they stated muscle tear, but do to what I described, rest and painkillers was prescribed.

Took 6 weeks before I was feeling fully healed.
Still went to gym only, but couldn't do any fly or shoulder press movements, everything else went good
with just a little pain.
Still happy!

After 6th week (2 weeks ago) I went back to MMA, and of course I was thrown and landed on an arm
right on the injury.
Got the plop again, but no internal bleeding and pain was less than last time.
However, this time I am way more swollen, from place of injury all over to lats and serratus.
Back to resting and rehab training.

Went to hospital, but 5 hours waiting time and no help made me got tired and I went home, Corona
situation has them swamped.

How do I get those small fibers strong again? No idea how to strenghten muscle fibers between the ribs...

I had a similar injury several years ago. I was big into wrestling and was coaching at the time as well.

Right under my left pectoral muscle I tore some tissue between two ribs.

It's still not back to the same. That was 10 years ago.

Combat sports is really hard on injuries.

Collagen can help. Osteo bi flex helped me a lot. I'm healed now. But still get the occasional odd twinge. You can strengthen the cartilage and tissue between your ribs alot of different ways,it depends on where the injury is. In my case it was just under my pectoral. So what worked for me was to lay on my back, and lob a medicine ball of about 12lbs up to someone standing just a foot or so back from my toes, aim for thier nose and they just push-lob it right back. This forced me to use those abdominal muscles to hold myself in position to catch and lob the medicine ball back. As well as using those muscles to lob and catch the ball itself.
Do it till you feel a slight burn of fatigue. Rest and repeat.

That's alot less tension than a sit up or a crunch. So it won't aggregate your injury but will still work the area you need to strengthen.

Boxers use this method to recuperate from torso damage suffered during bouts. But it works for injuries too.

Good luck

[Fiskevatten]

I had a similar injury several years ago. I was big into wrestling and was coaching at the time as well.

Right under my left pectoral muscle I tore some tissue between two ribs.

It's still not back to the same. That was 10 years ago.

Combat sports is really hard on injuries.

Collagen can help. Osteo bi flex helped me a lot. I'm healed now. But still get the occasional odd twinge. You can strengthen the cartilage and tissue between your ribs alot of different ways,it depends on where the injury is. In my case it was just under my pectoral. So what worked for me was to lay on my back, and lob a medicine ball of about 12lbs up to someone standing just a foot or so back from my toes, aim for thier nose and they just push-lob it right back. This forced me to use those abdominal muscles to hold myself in position to catch and lob the medicine ball back. As well as using those muscles to lob and catch the ball itself.
Do it till you feel a slight burn of fatigue. Rest and repeat.

That's alot less tension than a sit up or a crunch. So it won't aggregate your injury but will still work the area you need to strengthen.

Boxers use this method to recuperate from torso damage suffered during bouts. But it works for injuries too.

Good luck

Awesome, thank you very much for sharing and suggestions! I will jump right on that.
I've tried finding the spot where it hurts and kinda focus on that point with a very light weight, slightest odd feeling and I stop, but little pain is fine.
So far it seems to do wonders, but since 6 weeks didn't cut it to take a hit, I guess feeling healed and being healed are not the same.
What scares me is scar-tissue, which is why I don't want to leave it alone.

The doc said the same thing, muscle tear between ribs regardless of where is very common (especially in contact sports), but I had never heard of it before now.
Has to be the most cippling damage I've gotten since even sleeping (lying down) needs to be adjusted or injury is up again.

Doc even prescribed cough medicine since cough and sneezing was not allowed whatsoever, and I have 4 pets here at home shedding furr...

Happy you got back on there!

[Fiskevatten]

Have you tried the usual suspects with regards to healing? Specifically, BPC-157, TB-500, and GH or GH secretagouges. I would have at least those first two in any effort to heal, and the GH stuff as well, assuming money is no object.

Edit to add: maybe also stay away from MMA. It is kind of like putting your hand on a hot stove and getting burned, then coming back and doing it again. Einstein is credited as saying "The definition of insanity is 'doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result'". Not sure he actually said that, but it seems applicable here

I just finished a few SARMs , so I bet I will be in worse condition now for a bit^^
And yeah, MMA is damn hard on the body - especially for us weightlifters since we are naturally tense/ stiff in our movements and that is the worst you can do when fighting
someone who can fight back (note: and I can't even fight lol)

[Fiskevatten]

I think a lot of us don't even notice how tense and stiff we are until we try to do something that requires us to relax. I like to swim, and one of the keys to doing it well is what is known as 'floppy feet'. That is, relax your ankles when you are kicking your legs so that on the down kick (for freestyle), your foot points like you are on tippy toes, giving you more area to push against and thus more speed. Because your ankles are relaxed (ie your feet are floppy), when you bring your leg back up, your foot resumes it's normal position and cuts down on friction in the return part of the kick.

At least that is how it is supposed to work. I have struggled with that for several years. I will get there SOMEDAY, I guess

Oh yeah, bless swimming! All places has been closed since Covid, truly odd since MMA and Gym is open, but we all know Covid lives in the water...
It's such a great full body sport, and combining that with some sauna after and the day is great already!

I am back a little more now, went overboard today and feel a little swollen, but yesterday I was feeling amazing and how that came to be is strange.
I went with seated squats (sit on bench and up again), focusing on standing on my heels and not the front of the foot, while being stable and controlled (low weights of course).
The injury is between ribs under lats backside, but this exercise starting to burn and prickling between the ribs under right chestside (front).
In other words, the injury is bigger than I thought, or I have pinched some nerves.
I kept going regardless very controlled, and from that pain came relief the entire day - just gotta find that sweetspot and keep moving it carefully I guess.

[wango]

Long time no see!
So I went a little overboard jumping on MMA, Weights and Climbing around two months ago.
I kept feeling the side close to ribs and under lats was getting more and more stiff, with no to little pain.
After one session in MMA, something hurt like a mf there and I couldn't even drive home.
Breathing was hard, but I came home and slept through it.

Day after I was swollen and in pain, but I thought it would be fine. Then came the sneeze, a SNEEZE,
and "plop" my lats side went all blue and red (internal bleeding).
Called hospital and they stated muscle tear, but do to what I described, rest and painkillers was prescribed.

Took 6 weeks before I was feeling fully healed.
Still went to gym only, but couldn't do any fly or shoulder press movements, everything else went good
with just a little pain.
Still happy!

After 6th week (2 weeks ago) I went back to MMA, and of course I was thrown and landed on an arm
right on the injury.
Got the plop again, but no internal bleeding and pain was less than last time.
However, this time I am way more swollen, from place of injury all over to lats and serratus.
Back to resting and rehab training.

Went to hospital, but 5 hours waiting time and no help made me got tired and I went home, Corona
situation has them swamped.

How do I get those small fibers strong again? No idea how to strenghten muscle fibers between the ribs...

Just saw this. You can’t really directly strengthen the set of 2 intercostal muscles. Maybe wood choppers in a half kneeling position, but those are really intended for the obliques.

Stretches in every imaginable way to elongate scarring if the muscles did really tear.

When ribs are irritated where they attach to the spine, that is some nasty pain to work around.

[Fiskevatten]

Just saw this. You can’t really directly strengthen the set of 2 intercostal muscles. Maybe wood choppers in a half kneeling position, but those are really intended for the obliques.

Stretches in every imaginable way to elongate scarring if the muscles did really tear.

When ribs are irritated where they attach to the spine, that is some nasty pain to work around.

Thanks man! The wood chopper exercise/ exercises actually helped a lot, as well as full range one handed shoulder press with loow weight.
It hurt like a mf for several weeks, but the worst part was the lack of sleep because of it - needing to be absolutely still and no side motion at all...
Finally I am what I would say 90% healed now, can handle most in the gym now without pain.
What scares me is that I believed the same last time, went to MMA one time and boom - injury open again.

So I dropped the MMA until at least after summer and aim for gym, climbing and swimming to restart.

[wango]

I’m glad that it worked & you are back at it.

The gym, swimming & climbing - man that is a FANTASTIC summer for sure!